I'm A Mormon

General Conference was amazing. I loved every bit! I enjoyed just taking the weekend off and spending time with my family. What better way to relax then laying on the couch and watching conference? :)

The announcement about missionaries blew my mind. I was excited, confused and happy. I have a lot of guy friends about to turn 18 or who are already 18. I wonder what a surprise they got when they heard the news! When I heard girls could go at age 19, I gasped a very excited gasp and my dad happily laughed at me. Before the announcement, I would tell myself that if I didn't get married by the time I was 21, I would go on a mission. But now I can go on a mission and get married and be a young mother. Oh I'm terribly excited!

My friends have all been asking me if I do go on one (I'm pretty sure I will), what country would I would want to go. But I don't really mind. I'm up for an adventure anywhere. I'll go wherever. :)

People also have been asking me what my favorite talk is. Honestly, I don't have one. They were all so good! But my top three are probably Sister Dibb, Elder Holland and President Monson's closing talk. After conference, I made this in honor of Sister Dibb's talk:

I really enjoyed conference and can't wait till April until we all meet again. I love the spiritual high I get and hearing the apostles talk. :) April, come fast!

For Eternity

Yesterday was the dedication of the new Brigham City Temple. The service was wonderful and I enjoyed it much. I liked Elder Nelson's and Elder Packer's talks the best. Oh I love temples.

A few weeks ago, the family and I went to the temple open house. Oh goodness. That temple is breathtakingly beautiful. I missed classes to go to the open house and I'm so glad I did. My favorite room was the sealing room. The mirrors were magnificent and the chandelier was extremely elegant. I couldn't help but imagine myself kneeling at the altar getting sealed to my eternal companion for all of eternity. It was a precious thought and it was brought back to me while I attended the dedication.

After the open house, we wen't to this crazy cafe which I (or any of my family) wouldn't exactly call a "pleasant experience". It even made me a little ornery (who would've seen that coming?). But the whole thing was quite fun and I enjoyed it much. :)

Though the Brigham City Temple was absolutely gorgeous and I wouldn't mind getting married there, my favorite temple is the Salt Lake City Temple. I often imagine and call myself a princess and the Salt Lake Temple looks like the perfect "castle". What better place to be married to my prince than in a giant white castle?

Anyways. The dedication and the temple were beautiful and amazing. Just think, in 5 years (or more) I could be walking through the temple doors in an elegant white dress and a bouquet of bright lilies. Oh how I can't wait! One day, my prince will come. :)

Breakfast Time!

Our waffle-maker died four years ago. It was tragic. No more waffles. No more happy mornings filled with the joy from scrumptious food. We all watched glumly as mom threw it away in the garbage can. It was a terrible day.

Then, a few days ago, my mom bought a waffle-maker. Not any waffle-maker, a double belgian waffle-maker. There was much praising and shouting of joy when the rest of the family heard the news. We can eat homemade waffles for breakfast! So for the past few mornings we've been eating delicious, fluffy, mouth-watering waffles. Oh the happiness! The Smith family can now eat waffles to their heart's, I mean stomach's, content. Waking up every morning to the smell of the fluffy goodness is just simply heavenly.

The new waffle-maker was welcomed warmly into our home and is our new best friend. I took the privilege of naming the appliance Helga. She has served us well for the past few days and will continue serving us for many mornings ahead. :)

Agent Bell

My dad found this new show called Alphas. It's flippin' awesome. It's kind of like X-Men but way more cool. I like it a lot. No, I love it! No, I'm addicted. While half my family was gone in Idaho for my grandmother's birthday (I stayed because I had school and dance), me and my dad were the only ones home. He already watched all the episodes of Alphas. So I sat in the living room with my popcorn and watched Alphas to my heart's content. I watched all the way up to Episode 5 of Season II (which I had to watch on Hulu because Netflix didn't have it yet). Now I must wait for more episodes to come. *sigh* I hate waiting.

My favorite character is Gary Bell. He's so flippin' cute! (I use that word a lot, don't I?) I won't tell you what he can do because I don't want to spoil the fun of watching Alphas for you. My family also loves Gary. He's just that kind of guy! If you watch it, I'm sure you'll find yourself thinking Gary is adorable, too. :)

This is Gary. 

Anyways. Now that you know about my new addiction, you can watch it and be addicted with me! Bahaha. Then we could waste time talking about it and being all...nerdy. Sounds like fun to me! :D

It's A Family Thing

I recently became the official choreographer for my family's production business, Stories in Concert. YES! I love dance and always wanted to choreograph dances people would see, not just a little shenanigan I put together in the comfort of my bedroom. ;)

So the last couple of weeks, I've been working on two short dances for the show, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in Concert, which is playing in October 19-27 (get tickets here). The show is tons of fun. Definitely worth seeing. Maybe even twice! We have people from Nevada and Idaho traveling to see this show. It really is an "extraordinary storytelling experience."

My family had put it on in the past when we lived in Lehi. But since we moved up to Cache Valley, it's been a little rough. We decided to try it again this year and so we are. We have a great cast. They are so much fun. Definitely fit for a production like Sleepy Hollow. Speaking of the cast, I'm in it too! I'm in the choir.

I am also the youth assistant in Social Media Marketing. So I help with Facebook and such things by coming up with posts, clever things to say and getting the word out. Make sure to like Stories in Concert on Facebook if you haven't already!

There's one more thing I do. I am the makeup artist. I did makeup for a show I was in recently and I loved it. My mother saw my talent in this and made me the artist for Sleepy Hollow. I just ordered a book on stage makeup to increase my knowledge on such things. Can't wait till it get's here! I am already coming up with cool ideas. Come to the show so you can see my work!

So now that I am the choreographer, cast member, assistant marketer, and make-up artist for Stories in Concert, I can call myself a Storian. A name which is given to those who are intensely involved with and love the show and support the Stories in Concert mission. But I think the ultimate Storians are my mom and dad, Steve and Jayme Smith. They put this whole thing together. Found all the people needed, wrote the script, composed the music, threaded whirligigs, made a website and much, much more. They are amazing. Some other people that are Storians are Mark Christiansen and Carla Hughes. They both drive up from Utah County (2 hours!) to help with our upcoming show. Mark is helping with sound and lights and is a huge part of Stories in Concert. He did sound for us in the past and is a longtime family friend. Carla is the music director and part of the cast. She's been in the show before and knows how it works. She is helping our "newbie" cast, who have never seen the show before, to understand it's awesomeness.

So that's the whole shpill! Hope to see you at the production of Sleepy Hollow and other future shows. :)

Lagoon

For Labor Day weekend, Kaylee and her family took me to Lagoon. It was tons of fun! We got there about 3 in the afternoon. A tradition that I have in my family is we always ride the white Roller Coaster very first. So I brought that tradition to Kaylee, and that's the first ride we went on.

It was scary when I was little and it's still a little scary now. Not because it's fast or high, but because it's old! You can hear clicking and creaking and you're more worried about the whole thing crashing beneath you than you are of the roller coaster. But Kaylee and I still loved it.

When we got off the ride, we worked our way around the south end of the park riding on all the rides. Tidal Wave, Turn of the Century, Puff the Dragon, etc. It was a bit hot while we were there so we decided to go on Rattle Snake Rapids. We ended up in a raft with a dad and his 5 year old boy. It was loads of fun going down the "river" with them!

We heard about a storm coming while we were driving down to Lagoon, so me and Kaylee decided to go on the Rocket as soon as we got there, just in case they would close it because of the weather. We got in line for the Rocket, then we saw that it was for Re-Entry, and not Blast-Off. So, seeing as there was no one in the line next to us for Blast-Off, we hopped the fence and got into the right line. The two boys in the line next to us laughed as they watched two girls who were a bit wet from Rattle Snake Rapids,  hopping a fence at Lagoon. I bet it was quite a sight! But the ride was fun and we had a blast (haha I'm so funny)!

After that, we got in line for the Samurai. As we stood waiting for our turn, dark clouds blew over us. Then it started sprinkling. No big deal, just a little rain. But then, out of the blue, it started pouring rain and hailing hail the size of marbles. It hurt! So Kaylee and I ran out of line and tried to find a place to get out of the painful weather. One piece of hail hit Kaylee in the head, close to her eyes. It scared us both! We soon found cover underneath the GoKart ride/giftshop roof. We were soaked.

After about two minutes or so, the hail stopped, but the rain didn't. Kaylee and I decided that since, we were already wet, we could just continue riding rides. So, with a deep breath, we went out into the rain. We walked/ran to the opposite side of the park, splashing in all of the puddles on the way, to ride Cliffhanger, Colossus and other such rides.

When we got there, they had barely closed Colossus because of the rain. We were so bummed! But we went on the other rides that were still open such as Wicked and Spider. Later, the rain finally stopped. It would sprinkle a little here and there, but it was gone most of the time. Colossus opened again and we went on it about three times. It was great! I love Colossus. It's the ride I get most excited for whenever I go to Lagoon. :)

We continued going on rides for the rest of the night. We got a little chilly because we were drenched and it was dark. The last ride we went on that day was none other than the white Roller Coaster. It was probably more fun then when we rode it the first time that day! And that's what concluded our time spent at Lagoon. We had buckets of rain and fun. Can't wait to go again this coming Saturday with my own family! :)

My Heroes

A few years ago, my mom bought a book titled, "Laddie". She read it, loved it, and insisted we read it as a family. Many summer and fall nights our family gathered in the living room as my dad pulled out the book and sat down on his corner of the couch. There would be the most wonderful few seconds of still silence as we all eagerly waited for my dad start to read aloud. As he read, I found and fell in love with my heroes.

In this wonderful story, there is a princess. Well, not really a princess. She was just so wonderful, that's how many people who knew her referred to her. Why? Because she acted like one. She was smart, beautiful, kind, loving, understanding, talented, forgiving and all-over marvelous. Even though she wasn't royalty, she certainly was a princess. Every one looked at her with respect and all the little girls, such as Little Sister, wanted to be her. Her name was Pamela Prior. And an amazing woman she was. She was educated, could cook, sew, clean, ride a horse, garden and make you feel all happy inside. I look up to her and hope to one day become her. My dad told me I remind him of her. It makes me happy to know that I am thought of as such a character.

But let's not forget Laddie. He's who I want my future husband to be like. He's brilliant, charming, caring, handsome, funny, educated, hard-working, strong, and a great big brother and friend. Little Sister loved him dearly. He was her favorite sibling. He would play with Little Sister, work hard with his father, take care of his mother, learn all he could learn, and be as gentlemanly as possible. He fancied the Princess and she fancied him. It really is a wonderful story. If you haven't read it, I strongly encourage you to do so! It's one of my favorite books of all time.

And maybe down the road, I'll find and marry my Laddie. After all, I am becoming a Princess. :)

Me, Myself and I

So. I've decided to take up blogging. Simply because I like writing. Journals, short stories, poems, essays, you name it. I just love it! So we'll see how this blogging thing goes. :)

Anyways. Let me introduce myself to you. Obviously my name is Morynn if you didn't get that much from the blog already. I'm 14 years old (almost 15!), the oldest in my family, have long brown hair, blue eyes, and reach 5'4 1/2''. I have no issues with self-confidence (as any of my family will tell you). I live in Cache Valley, Utah. I love the color purple, 40s fashion and era, hanging with my friends and, of course, food. I love, love, love food. Often times I'll get together with my friends and we'll just find something to eat whether it be corn dogs, cheesecake, spicy Ramen, cookie dough or anything we can find in the kitchen.

Speaking of friends, this is my best friend, Kaylee. She lives two houses down from me. We do everything together. Shopping, sports, going to the movies, making cupcakes, freaking out over cute 40s clothes, the list goes on forever. She's flippin' awesome. If you ever get the chance to meet her, you're gonna love her from the second you do.

Something I am incredibly passionate about is ballroom dancing. I love it! I've danced for two years. But just last year, I danced with Enlight Ballroom. I got to compete my dancing and do show routines. It was loads of fun! This year I made the highest competing team for my age, Junior Red Team. I'm thrilled I made it! Another exciting thing about dance this year is I have an open latin partner. This means that I can dance with a costume and not have restrictions on steps for latin dances (chacha, samba, rumba, etc). My partner is Keenan Goldsberry. We start lessons next week. We're psyched.

This is my family! Cute, aren't we? This was taken in San Francisco about two years ago. We loved the trip. We had loads of fun. Unfortunately, my dad is missing from this picture because he was the one capturing it. But he's awesome, too! My mom and my sister, Kaleigh, are like my best friends that are related to me. They are always there to support and love me. My brothers can be little punks sometimes, but I love 'em to death. I play Legos with Max and wrestle with Andrew. They're all just wonderful! I am so blessed to have the family I do.

That's all there is to it! So now you know all about the Miss Morynn. Awesome. :)